DUST Fiend wrote:Maken Tosch wrote:As soon as optional respecs become available (whether for free or for sale), I will dump Dust into the trash bin like dust.
Im at the other end of the spectrum. If CCP refuses to adapt to the console fps genre and decides to be stubborn, I will likely grow bored of the same thing month in and month out, and Ill be out.
That's a problem with the skill tree; not a lack of respecs. It's because the SP you invest is useless if you decide to train something else. It often makes the user feel like he/she wasted his/her SP if they diversify. The 7m SP you might have in Assault Rifles is useless if you want to even start using Shotguns, much less specialize.
This is completely opposite to a good skill system like EVE's, where diversifying is desirable once you finish your core specialization (the concept of specialization in EVE was a piece of new player advice, not game design).
If you'll allow me to diverge for a moment here, I'd like to give an example of a better system - I might make a separate thread about this that goes more into detail.
A solution is to only have one skill per weapon that exclusively affects it; operation skills should affect a given size or type of weapon, and the Reload/CPU/PG/Ammo skills become global. This is very much
like EVE; why fix what ain't broke.
For example:
Light Hybrid Weapon Operation
-+5% bonus per level to Light Hybrid Handheld weapon damage.
GùÿUnlocks:
GùïStandard Light Hybrid Weapons at level 1.
GùïAdvanced Light Hybrid Weapons at level 3.
GùïHeavy Hybrid Weapon Operation at level 3.
GùïLight Hybrid Weapon Specializations at level 5.
GùÿPrerequisites:
GùïLevel 3 Weaponry.
GùïLevel 3 Sidearm Hybrid Weapon Operation.
GÇóReplaces ALL the [weapon] Specialization skills for hybrid weapons (AR, Shotgun, Plasma Canon, etc...).
GÇóSpecialization skills replaced by current Operation skills (e.g. AR accuracy; shotgun reload).
Such a revamp would mean you can specialize in a given type of weaponry, in this case Light Hybrids, and then put extra points into the individual weapons (it's only one skill per weapon instead of 5) that you prefer within that group without feeling that you're wasting huge amounts of SP. You can freely try weapons within that group and make better informed decisions about which one you want to pick next.
For example: You're specialized in ARs. Your AR specialization means you've been using Prototype ARs, but you're wondering if you should take the leap into Shotguns. Since you already have Light Hybrids 5, you can instantly try the ADV Shotguns - complete with the 25% damage bonus from Light Hybrids 5 that your AR benefited from - and all that's between that and PRO Shotguns is the Shotgun Specialization skill.
Holy poop it's so much less painful and you don't feel cheated out of your SP because if it turns out you don't like Shotguns, you can try any of the other Light Hybrid weapons, no SP wasted!
Adding another group to your specialization pool costs more SP than an individual weapon - this reinforces racial specialization and introduces the concept of cross-training from EVE - but only has you retrain one particular set of 1-3 skills (again, less than the 5 per weapon we currently have). If you decide that you don't like projectile weapons, you can stop early, but you still got to try ALL of the projectile weapons within a given size; so the chances of you not liking any of them is much lower.
I might go more into detail about how a given skill tree using this system might look; but that's for another time.
So I'm with Maken on this one; the moment we get periodical SP respecs is the moment I'm out. And my reason for that is that CCP can change the Skill system to one where respecs aren't required or as desired.